


Bitter Dregs Blooming Red

by Adel Mortescryche (Mortescryche)



Series: FFXV Time Travel and Dimension Travel [2]
Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Absent Characters, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Time Travel, BAMF Prompto Argentum, Bittersweet, Crushes, Dark Thoughts, Don't copy to another site, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Friendship, Friendship/Love, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Light Angst, M/M, Mildly Suicidal Thoughts, Multi, Polyship Roadtrip, Post-World of Ruin, Prompto is Old, Prompto is Tired, Team as Family, These Kids are Too Much for Him, Time Travel, Time Travel Fix-It, Two Promptos!, Unrequited Crush, World of Ruin guys what'd you expect, it's practically canon, this fic will not hurt you
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-14
Updated: 2018-12-14
Packaged: 2019-09-18 10:03:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,739
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16992924
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mortescryche/pseuds/Adel%20Mortescryche
Summary: Prompto had gone back to save the world from certain ruin. Yadda Yadda. He hadn’t quite planned on having to herd younger versions of himself and his best friends, but you had to do what you had to do.Awkward crushes hadn’t really been something he’d seen coming, but at least he could get a good laugh out of it.---Prompto missed being that comfortable in his own body. The lack of the bone deep scars that had healed badly, with no ready access to potions and elixirs one too many times. He hadn't realized just how much he'd slowed down until he'd come back, and had been forced to witness his own, younger self move as quick as the name that Cor had christened him with, back when he'd still been a baby.





	Bitter Dregs Blooming Red

**Author's Note:**

  * For [VolxdoSioda](https://archiveofourown.org/users/VolxdoSioda/gifts), [Seito](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Seito/gifts), [IWP_chan](https://archiveofourown.org/users/IWP_chan/gifts), [Lulubugg](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lulubugg/gifts), [OnceABlueMoon](https://archiveofourown.org/users/OnceABlueMoon/gifts).



> I was... Enabled. With a captital E. I lay the blame for this at Vol and Seito's feet, but also at Pchan and Sassy's feet. You horrible enablers. 
> 
> I love you all. Take this fic and sob ugly tears.
> 
> Also, if any of you like to look out for these things, there might be more time travelling Prompto fics. We all enabled each other, lol.
> 
> \---
> 
> If you'd like a playlist for this fic, here:
> 
> Svrcina - Hello Who Are You  
> Lauren Aquilina - Sinners  
> Lauren Aquilina - King  
> Jaymes Young - I’ll Be Good  
> Eurielle - Whispers

The rough sound of the tent flap being shoved to the side was a sharp wake-up call, all his senses jangling to attention. As was the uneven tread of booted feet stumbling in, the person who’d ducked under the flap all but planting face-first into Prompto's chest

He stared down at the messy blond hair right beneath his stubbled chin, blinked slowly, and made no move to shift, or even lift his head up from where he had it pillowed on his crossed arms.

“Y'know, I might have been jealous if this weren't so flattering and hilarious.” Little Prom said, mumbled it into his shirt, and Prompto grunted, closing his eyes.

“People always did say I was just a little bit masochistic. Didn't think they were right.” He replied, snide, and Prom shoved himself up on his hands, eyes wide. Arms corded with enough muscle to hold him up easily, even at fifteen.

Prompto missed being that comfortable in his own body. The lack of the bone deep scars that had healed badly, with no ready access to potions and elixirs one too many times. He hadn't realized just how much he'd slowed down until he'd come back, and had been forced to witness his own, younger self move as quick as the name that Cor had christened him with, back when he'd still been a baby.

“Wait, people called me a m-masochist?" He squeaked, voice breaking, and Prompto couldn't help but snort, and crack a grin up at the kid.

“Mind out of the gutter, dude. It's at least a _little_ bit weird, what with you being right on top of me.”

Prom blinked at that, for a long moment, visibly taking in his grin in the dark. Prompto could actually see the way his words were turning over inside the kid's head. Until they actually computed, and Prom made a high pitched noise, akin to some poor beast dying, throwing himself away hard enough to go crashing into the tent walls and bring them down.

If Prompto hadn't reacted first and dragged him back, anyway. He'd been inside tents that had collapsed, before, and they were no fun at all. This wouldn't be as bad as back then, not without any rampaging Red Giants and skeletons, but hell, it would be awkward enough. Since he could still sense the other kids outside.

He stared Prom down, with raised brows, until Prom finally subsided with a mumbled apology, the red that touched his cheeks, throat, the bridge of his nose and the tips of his ears dark enough that Prompto could actually see it in the dark. He couldn’t help but snort again, letting the kid go, and sitting up, easily crossing his legs and looking back at him, waiting.

Prom blinked, when the hand that had been at his nape and holding onto the collar of his jacket disappeared, but he shifted into a kneeling position readily enough, his muscles so tight that _Prompto_ felt uncomfortable just looking at him.

“Look, just, sit down and _relax,_ dude,” he sighed wearily, and Prom fumbled in place again, trying to shift into another position, trying to look casual about it, and failing miserably.

“Were… were they like that, even in the future?” Prom asked, awkward, and Prompto blinked slowly, not understanding what exactly Prom meant by that, and then, understanding it well enough to choke on his own laughter.

“Oh. _Oh._ No, kid. No, never. Gladio’d always been too busy chasing every skirt he saw, Noct had been too wrapped up with the Kingdom, the paps, schoolwork and then the War, Iggy’d always been too wrapped up in _Noct…”_

“And you?” The kid prompted, when he didn’t go on, and Prompto blinked long and slow before grinning as hard as he could.

“Oh, I had loads of girls, dude. Never say steady, that’s me!” He chirped, and Prom stared at him silently, before finally groaning, and burying his face in his hands.

“Oh Six, you were too dorky for anyone to be interested. _I’m_ too dorky for anyone to care. Until I’m thirty, anyway, because apparently that’s when my supposed best friends decide I’m hot enough to crush on.” He whined, and Prompto laughed, the sound rough in his throat, and grin a wry slash across his lips.

There’d been that thing with Cindy, in the Hammerhead’s backrooms, back when Hunters and researchers hadn’t decided to pile in and make it a mini HQ. And then there’d been that thing with Dino, back when Dino had still been fucking _alive,_ and not reduced to a daemon. There’d even been that thing with Loqi in Lestallum’s refugee camps, both of them tired of fighting and missing old friends. There’d been Ignis’ hand, tight on the nape of his neck, Gladio’s hands mythril bands on his hips-

Yeah, no. The kid was fifteen. He didn’t need to hear about the world falling to pieces around their ears, or about all of them finding comfort in what they could. Whether that was in the quiet of the endless night, breathing with someone’s warm, human back pressed against their own, watching for attacks, or whether that was in the warm clutch of a body, a raucous, rebellious cry daring the world to turn them into daemons next…

No. Prom didn’t need to hear any of it.

“Hey, I thought you’d already gone to sleep.” A gruff voice said, and when Prompto glanced to the side, he found Gladio peeking through the front of the tent, lips pursed, but his eyes filled with a warm, inquisitive glow that was as familiar to Prompto as breathing.

He snorted reflexively, and pointed back outside.

“No. I refuse. _Get,_ brat, I don’t need you or your perversion anywhere near my sleeping bag or quilts.”

“Aw c’mon, Argent, now you’re just being mean,” Noct grumbled, shoving his head in beneath Gladio’s.

Prom started giggling, while Prompto scowled thunderously.

“No means no, Princess. And anyway, you’re _worse._ If I didn’t know any better, I’d say that this was all your idea. But nah, Iggy and Gladio know better than to follow along with one of your schemes.”

“Quite,” Ignis agreed, his head popping in above Gladio’s, somehow, his hair adorably ruffled, soft and bereft of its future spikes, leaving Prompto with the strong urge to coo at him. “Following after one of his Highness’ schemes to seduce you would truly be the last resort.”

“Hey!” Noct yelped, his voice drowned out by Gladio’s snicker and the choked laughter coming from Prom.

“Yeah, Iggy’s schemes are loads better, anyway,” Gladio agreed, much to Prompto’s exasperation. “I mean, he can cook. That’s got to be a good start, right?”

“The way to a man’s heart lies through his stomach,” Ignis quoted wisely, the words incongruent with the higher pitch of a voice that hadn’t quite deepened all the way yet.

Man, Prompto would never have guessed that Iggy was a late bloomer. Noct certainly hadn’t confessed, nor had Gladio. It made a man wonder what, exactly, Ignis had threatened them with to keep them from teasing him about it. Because, jokes about seducing him aside, Gladio and Noct _were_ right about one thing. Ignis _was_ the schemer amongst them.

“You can all clear out, now,” Prompto said, once they were done laughing.

He was faced with a quadruple of sad stares that almost, _almost,_ made him cave. But a guy needed his beauty sleep, especially if they were venturing into Costlemark Tower the next night. He’d been hoping to avoid the bloody place, and it’s jabberwock, but the Royal Arm had been stolen much before any of them could have guessed.

“ _Ar_ gent,” Noctis whined, his voice rising high on the first syllable of the name that Prompto had come up with, back when Cor had asked him for a name, after he’d crashlanded in the throne room, and Prompto wished he’d had the sense to think up something else beforehand.

Before Ardyn and Noct had sent him back, tired, and desperate. But they’d all been too scared that it _wouldn’t work,_ that the Horror inhabiting the Meteor would be able to tell what they were up to, and would rip through the last of Ardyn’s control and consume Prompto the way it had consumed half of Lestallum before Noct could shove swords, first through his head, then through all his extremities, somehow managing to save the generators and the last of the untainted meteor shards still powering the city.

They’d lost Ignis and Gladio, that time. There’d been no one else who knew where to go, or what to do. They couldn’t risk Cor, not when he was the only thing keeping the Glaives together, their backbone where Noct was their beating heart.

Prompto had pulled the short stick by virtue of being the only one of Noct’s retainers still alive.

“Argent?” Gladio murmured, his voice a rough husk, the timbre of it awakening memories that Prompto had left far behind, seeing as they belonged to a man this Gladio was not. Not yet, hopefully not ever.

He glanced up, to find all the kids watching him quietly, something soft and worried glimmering in the depth of their eyes, the set of their mouths. Prompto blinked slowly, the effort to bring himself back from his memories an actual chore. But he found himself dragging up the corners of his lips in a grin, anyway, because that was what he did, that was who he _was_. Couldn’t let the kids get sad, or worried about him.

“Are you okay?” Noctis asked him, quiet, his voice so much higher pitched than the baritone it had settled into when he’d been drifting inside the Crystal.

“Who, me? Of course I am. Sorry, I got a bit distracted there.” Prompto laughed again, rubbing the back of his head, before stilling, finally registering that they’d all crowded around him like a bunch of puppies looking for treats.

His left brow twitched.

“I thought I told all of you to get out?” He asked archly, and Ignis pushed up his spectacles, looking charmingly shifty.

Prompto didn’t believe the awkward tilt of his shoulders one bit, not when he knew _his_ Ignis as well as he did.

As well as he had.

“You seemed lost in thought, Argent,” Ignis offered, his voice gentle. “We thought it prudent to wait, as we haven’t had a chance to eat dinner yet.”

“Oh, right. I’d been having a bit of a headache, gotta say I forgot,” Prompto admitted easily.

Prom shot him a vindictively amused look, safe beneath the cover of his long and messy bangs, and Prompto rolled his eyes, ignoring him. So the headache had been primarily because of the three brats before him, and the way they’d been eying him up all day. As if he wouldn’t have noticed that.

Ten years ago, he might have been flattered. Hell, ten years ago, and he might have been gung ho and actually done something about all the sexual tension. He’d been as virginal as Noct’s lily white ass, but that certainly wouldn’t have stopped him from climbing any one of his friends like a tree. As long as it wouldn’t mean sacrificing their friendship, anyway; he’d cared a bit too much about their friendship to waste it on something as flighty and likely to fall apart as a _relationship._ It was why he’d chased after Cindy, Aranea and every other dauntingly strong woman he’d come across, instead of actually trying for any of his friends.

But, now? When he’d been through hell and back, and had to see Gladio torn to shreds, and Ignis warped from the inside out, begging them to end him? Seen Noct crying at night, and Ardyn caught somewhere between being an ally and an enemy, and a solid wall to lean against when everything else was falling apart? No. It was just too little, too late.

And anyway, they were kids. Like little toddling babies, cute like the daggerquill chicks that followed their parents out of a nest, trying to fly for the first time. Or like the leggy anak calves, still trying to find their feet, right after their mothers had brought them out. They weren’t the friends Prompto had grown up beside, who’d been through hell alongside him.

What they were was a promise of a better future, one that Prompto would be happy to ensure over all else. And then he could take a gun to his own head and end it, finally finding his way to his friends and Ardyn in the Astralsphere. Shiva had promised that they would be there, as had Bahamut. Etro herself had pressed a kiss to Prompto’s brow, and had murmured that she would make the impossible possible for him, as long as he kept up his side of the promise.

So he would. He would. He’d take care of these kids, he’d take care of _everyone,_ and damn the consequences. He’d wrench Ardyn around to seeing some sense before Eos died around them, poisoned by the Abomination lurking within the Meteor, biding Its time.

“Argent,” Gladio sighed, and wrapped his strong, callused fingers around Prompto’s wrist, bringing him back to himself with a start. “How can you be okay when you keep _drifting_ like that?”

Prompto stared at him, this young Gladio’s face overlayed with an older Gladio’s face in Prompto’s mind’s eye, covered in blood and half of it _gone,_ and sucked in a harsh breath, nodding sharply when Gladio squeezed down again.

“Yeah. Yeah, I heard you. Let’s go eat. Else Iggy’ll get mad, right?” He directed the latter of his words at Ignis, who was still crouched on Gladio’s other side, his expression unreadable. And yet, still visibly concerned.

“You’re way too stubborn.” Noct snarked, and Prompto barked out a laugh.

“No, I think that’s _you_ lot. Can’t you just aim closer to your age and go after Prom?”

“Keep me out of this!” Prom snapped, shoving his forearms up in a violent x sign, as though to ward all of them away. It had Prompto laughing again, a little helplessly, feeling the throb of his heart in his chest, and feeling the pull of amusement in his veins _ache_.

“C’mon Argent. Iggy made _meat pie._ Y’know, that recipe he managed to beg off of Mama Ezma when we went through the Hunter HQ?”

Prompto’s brows rose, and shot a curious glance at Ignis, who hunched over his knees.

“His Highness said you really liked it when you picked up a slice,” he mumbled, and Prompto turned his stare on Noctis, whose entire face managed to go cherry red.

“You looked like you wanted more.” Noctis blurted out, audibly defensive. “You haven’t looked that way since we grabbed curry rice for lunch at Lestallum the first time we drove through.”

Observant. But then, he’d already known that about Noct. His best bro had always been quietly observant. Even when they’d been brats stuck in school, with Prompto forcing himself to orbit the Prince because he _wasn’t good enough_ , and Noctis sighing, and letting him have his way, just waiting patiently for him to step forward when he was ready.

“Cute,” he quipped, lips quirking up in a toothy grin, especially when all three of them stared up at him, wide eyed. “All that, just for lil’ ol’ me? I’m touched, brats.”

“Then…” Noctis whispered, hushed, looking hopeful, as did Gladio and Ignis.

Prompto laughed right in their faces.

“In your dreams, brats,” he chuckled, and levered himself up onto his knees, making them scramble back out of the tent. Prom stayed back, though, still looking amused.

“You really need to stop teasing them, man,” he drawled, and Prompto had to grin some more at that, the sharp edge of the expression softening into something more fond.

“Maybe, yeah,” Prompto agreed. “But it’s too much fun. They’re adorable.”

“And you’re an ass. Sure they didn’t call you a sadist instead of a masochist?”

Prompto blinked, surprised, and reluctantly impressed. And then took that back, because Prom seemed to think through what he said again, and then blushed all the way up to his roots before scrabbling to get out, just like the rest.

Prompto blinked at the swaying tent flap, and laughed quietly to himself.

Man, these kids would be the death of him some day.

But not yet. Not yet.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed reading this! I’m tempted to write a follow-up, or a prequel to this at some point, let’s see. The plot crept up on me out of nowhere and held a blade to my throat until I wrote it in, gdi.
> 
> If any of you showed up here from my Salty Noct Time Travel fic, I’m halfway through chapter 3! This just. Crept up on me. Because of the enabling I mentioned above.
> 
> Kudos and Comments are very welcome, guys. Consider leaving me something on your way out.
> 
> \---
> 
> You can find me **@adelmortescryche** on Tumblr and at **AdelMortescryche** on Pillowfort. Come hmu anytime.


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